Preferably, at least two sets of symbols represent movement involving different games or different variations of, or consequences in, a game.
Preferably, at least two sets of symbols represent for at least two players an element of chance to be predicted.
The apparatus may be in the form of a dice. Preferably, a symbol is provided which if selected has no effect on the position of play. A symbol may also be provided which indicates a variable score. A symbol may also be provided and, if selected, may permit a player to select a particular move either for himself or his opponent. The term "selected" is intended to include an action of choosing as well as a throwing action. Accordingly in one embodiment the apparatus may take the form of tiles or tokens which may be selected at random from a bag.
Preferably, the expected results may be selected from the group of positive and negative numbers.
The term "expected result" is defined as the sum of the products of individual scores, or results, multiplied by their associated probability of occurring. Heretofore the expected result of a dice has always been positive, thus enabling overall forward movement in a game. The expected result of a regular six sided dice is: 1/6.times.(1+2+3+4+5+6)= 21/6. Because the dice of the present invention has negative numbers appearing on some faces it is now possible to have an expected result which provides for overall negative movement in a game. That is an expected result less than zero.
Reference is made to a 14 faced die in the book "Board and Table Games" by R. C. Bell, published by Oxford University Press 1969. However, no mention is made of a twenty faced die and accordingly this playing apparatus offers the advantage over existing dice in that more possible variations in play may be achieved, when playing with it.
Preferably, each face of a twenty sided dice is an equilateral triangle. Sets of symbols may be provided on different faces which indicate different moves, for example, backward, forward or no movement or a choice of movement. Means may be provided so as to distinguish each set of symbols from each other set of symbols. Means may be provided so as to distinguish the symbols of the first set of faces from the symbols of the second set of faces. The distinguishing means or symbols may serve to subdivide the symbols so as to enhance play, by incorporating the first and/or the second aspect of the present invention.
Preferably, a symbol may be provided on at least some of its faces, which symbol has no effect on the position of play and is of a size which allows the application of further indicia to the symbol. Typically, a positive number is displayed in a background which is in the shape of a plus sign, which sign is of a size which allows the application of further indicia and/or a negative number is displayed on a background which is in the shape of a minus sign, which sign is of a size which allows the application of further indicia.
In a preferred embodiment symbols are provided on different coloured backgrounds which act as indices. The colour of each index, or background, of the face which shows uppermost when the dice is cast could be a sign for a particular player, or team, during play or to a particular token of a player.
If there are twenty faces to the dice, ten of these faces preferably appear on a dark background and the remaining ten appear on a light (for example, white) background. On nine of the dark faces and nine of the light faces symbols indicative of a number between plus five and minus three including zero appear, making a total of eighteen. On the nineteenth face a star appears on a dark background. On the twentieth face a star appears on a light background. The star may be used to indicate a different number (for example, plus six) or may provide a random chance element so that, when thrown, it enables the person to whom the particular colour (that is, dark or light) corresponds to select his or her score at that turn or for that person's score at that turn to be selected by the person who threw the dice.
The references to dark and light backgrounds and to differently coloured backgrounds apply mutatis mutandis whatever the nature of the attributes that may differentiate the backgrounds of the first set of faces from the backgrounds of the second set of faces and also apply mutatis mutandis whatever the nature of the attributes that may differentiate the symbols of the first set of faces from the symbols of the second set of faces.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention there is provided a dice comprising a plurality of tiles or tokens.
Provided that the expected result is greater than zero then overall forward play is possible. The expected result is defined as the sum of individual scores multiplied in each case by the corresponding probability of that score occurring.
Rules may be provided so as to allow the person to whom the particular colour corresponds to select a move for himself or herself. Alternatively, rules may be provided so as to allow the person throwing the dice, if the colour shown corresponds to his or her opponent's colour or token, to select a move for his or her opponent. The dice could therefore be used in such games as "snakes and ladders" and if such a situation arose then in the first alternative a player could choose a number which would allow himself or herself to move on to a square having the foot of a ladder on it and therefore move to a higher square, or in the second alternative a player could choose a number which would force his or her opponent to move on to a square having a head of a snake on it and therefore relegating his or her opponent to a lower square. Other variations in rules may be provided which permit a player to re-throw or choose another score.
A preferred embodiment of the apparatus is a regular icosahedron. For there to be an equal chance of any symbol on the dice being thrown, each face of the dice must be the same size and shape.
Each symbol used on the dice must be immediately recognisable, whichever way round it is shown.
Preferably positive numbers are shown by white spots on a black background in the shape of a plus (+) sign. When a positive number is thrown, the relevant counter is moved forwards that number of spaces.
Preferably negative numbers are shown by white spots on a red background in the shape of a minus (-) sign. When a negative number is thrown, the relevant counter is moved backwards that number of spaces.
Preferably each zero is shown in blue. When a zero is thrown, the relevant counter would normally remain where it was just as if a turn has been missed. But the players agree before the game starts or if the rules of the game so provide, throwing a zero could be treated as a move by the relevant counter corresponding to the background against which that zero appears. The same space may be occupied as on the previous throw so that any award or penalty given for landing on that space will be repeated.
Preferably each star is shown in yellow, and subject to the rules of the game may take any value from +6 (plus six) to -3 (minus three), including 0 (zero), as decided in the first alternative by the player whose counter is to be moved or in the second alternative by the player who threw the dice. The first alternative would apply unless the rules of the game provide otherwise or the players agree otherwise before the game starts. The background of the face which is shown uppermost after throwing decides which counter is to be moved.
One purpose of the different backgrounds (which are here called "dark" and "light") is to control which counter is to be moved. For example if two players are playing and one is Player A and the other is Player B, it may be decided that player A's counter is controlled by the light backgrounds, and player B's counter is controlled by the dark backgrounds. Then, for example: A throws light +2, and moves his counter forward 2 spaces. B throws dark -3, and moves his counter back 3 spaces. A throws dark +5, and B moves B's counter forward 5 spaces. B throws light *; if the first alternative applies, A, not B, decides what value to give to the star, say 4, and moves his counter forward accordingly.
If each player (or a single player) has two counters, one counter could be controlled by the light backgrounds and the other by the dark backgrounds.
In a different version two teams may compete against one another. Each team may have two players with one counter each. The counter of one player in a team could be controlled by the light backgrounds, and the counter of the other member of that team could be controlled by the dark backgrounds.
If the players so agree before the game starts, the light and dark backgrounds are ignored and each player throws the dice only for his or her own counter.
If a game requires a 6 (on a conventional dice) to be thrown before a player can start, the players may throw either a star or a zero in order to start, but if the players so agree before the game starts, they may decide either that a player must throw a star in order to start or that a player must throw a zero in order to start.
Preferably the number or symbol which appears on any face of the dice also appears on the opposite face of the dice, but with the other background colour.
Because of the differently coloured backgrounds a player may throw a number or symbol for his or her opponent, or may control two counters at the same time. This means that a single player can play board games with the dice, on his own.
On a conventional dice the numbers are shown by spots arranged to fit the faces of the cube. In the preferred embodiment the positive numbers are shown by spots arranged on the arms and/or the centre of a plus (+) sign, and the negative numbers are shown similarly on a minus (-) sign. Also the variable number (which has any value from +6 to -3) has its maximum value of +6 shown by the spokes of the star symbol, and the zero is shown by a circular 0.
The following must be immediately distinguishable from each other, namely:
(a) each dot (meaning any spot or other distinguishing mark or sign on a symbol) from the rest of the symbol on which it appears; PA1 (b) each symbol from the background of the face on which it appears; PA1 (c) the backgrounds or other means indicating the first set of faces from the backgrounds or other means indicating the second set of faces. PA1 (1) differences of colour; PA1 (2) different intensities of colour; PA1 (3) monochromatic contrast; PA1 (4) differences of texture; PA1 (5) differences of surface-level; PA1 (6) a contrasting border between a dot and the rest of the symbol on which it appears and/or between a symbol and the background of the face on which it appears; PA1 (7) a rim or a groove between a dot and the rest of the symbol on which it appears and/or between a symbol and the background of the face on which it appears; PA1 (8) differences in reflectivity; PA1 (9) differences in pellucidity or opacity; PA1 (10) differences in warmth or coldness to the touch; PA1 (11) by different materials being used; PA1 (12) by any other means which provide sufficient contrast either visible or tangible or visible and tangible. PA1 (i) the normally-sighted; PA1 (ii) the colourblind; PA1 (iii) those suffering from disorders of vision; PA1 (iv) the visually handicapped; PA1 (v) the blind.
Such distinctiveness may be achieved by using any or all or any combination of the following means, namely;
By using any or all or any combination of such means as may be appropriate, the dice may (depending upon the particular means and/or embodiment) be read either by sight or by touch or by sight and touch and so be used by any or all of the following persons, namely:
Another aspect of the present invention relates to apparatus for playing a game.
The apparatus in particular relates to board games in which a playing surface is employed on which one or more counters or tokens, representing one or more players, move towards a predetermined location or goal.
The present apparatus is particularly well suited for use with the aforementioned dice apparatus.
Furthermore it will be appreciated that the apparatus of the present invention is particularly well suited as an educational aid and also in that role, it is not limited to use with the aforementioned dice.
According to an eighth aspect of the present invention apparatus for playing a game comprises: a playing surface defining a plurality of regions;at least one token capable of moving across the surface from a first region to a second region; means for indicating a first base vector (i) and a second base vector (j), which base vectors determine the direction of movement of the token and means for indicating separate scalar values (A and B), the scalar values determining the magnitudes of first and second vectors (Ai and Bj) such that a resultant vector, indicating overall movement of the token is determined by the sum of the two vectors Ai+Bj.
According to a ninth aspect of the present invention apparatus for playing a game comprises: a playing surface; a plurality of regions defining a matrix disposed on the said surface and at least one token arranged to move under the direction of a random indicator, the token being movable from a first region of the matrix to a second region of the matrix under the influence of the indicator, characterised in that the random indicator is capable of indicating the amount of movement in at least two independent directions simultaneously.
So far mention has been made of means being adapted to indicate an absolute direction or sense. For example a negative symbol has indicated that movement should be backwards, anticlockwise or whatever reverse sense is required by a game to place a player at some disadvantage. In the embodiments described below the term "means to indicate" or "means for indicating" is intended to include an indicator that a particular player or team is to move or play and/or that a particular player or team is to move parallel to a specific axis or in a certain sense or in a particular direction defined by one or more "base vectors". Such indicative means could include a background colour or shade, or any or all of any combination of the distinguishing means aready described.
Preferably the independent directions are perpendicular to one another, similar to the arrangement of axes on a graph whose coordinate system is determined by the Cartesian coordinate system. However, different directions may be governed by other coordinate systems, such as for example, a coordinate system similar to or based upon the polar coordinate system. Of course independent directions are not limited to these two types of coordinate systems and any playing surface or space having at least two possible independent directions in which a token may move, may be used.
Movement in either direction may be in a forward or backward sense. Similarly if a system based on polar coordinates is used the sense of direction may either be clockwise or counter-clockwise as determined by a suitable indicator, such as a negative symbol disposed on some faces of a dice. As such a dice is described above for ease of understanding the present invention the polyhedral embodiment of it will be referred to as a "matrix dice".
Preferably, more than one player can play at the same time. Each player may have a predetermined start position where his or her token is placed prior to the commencement of a game and each player may have a predetermined end position or positions. The end position may be determined randomly or by agreement. One way in which selection of the end position may be made is by selecting a card at random. Alternatively, the or each end position may be printed or applied to the playing surface. Preferably, in such apparatus a symbol is provided, which symbol indicates a variable score.
Each player may start at a different position and may have different frames of reference. That is, a positive or forward direction for one player, may represent a negative or backward direction for another player. For example if a rectangular playing surface is used with a regular rectangular grid of locations and there are two players, with each player starting at diametrically opposite corners, then a move of 1 forwards and 1 up for a first player will represent a move of 1 backwards and 1 down for the second player. Accordingly it may be preferred to arrange one or more displacement indicators adjacent to one or more edges of the playing surface so as to indicate a positive and negative direction for each player. These may take the form of coloured lines with arrows showing a direction play for that player.
A player may have to traverse a predetermined network of positions. At each position points may be awarded or an advantage may be gained. Points may take the form of money vouchers, cards or any other suitable score indication means, with the result that the winner is the first to reach a predetermined score, or the player having the most points. Advantages may take the form of cards with a name of a planet, town, city or street. For example the playing surface may represent the solar system and predetermined positions for the planets may be indicated. These positions may be variable, chosen by agreement or by random selection. An object of such a game may be to visit a certain number of planets. The winner may be the player to visit all planets first or the player who reaches the most planets. Variation may be made so that a player visits towns or streets or famous buildings.
Other variations may be made by replacing planets with stars, galaxies or the like, thus creating a game with an educational element. Further alternatives include playing surfaces indicating the world's surface, in the form of a map showing capital cities or a map of the moon's surface. A topological map of, for example, a network of lines of communication linking cities, or suburbs of a city may be superimposed on the grid. Such a network may include a map of an underground train system.
Players may decide to visit certain destinations before commencing a game.
Yet more embodiments include playing surfaces in the form of graphs; sales charts; pie charts; town plans; building plans; a matrix displaying letters of the alphabet, numbers and/or shapes; a surface in the form of a maze or representing a developed surface of a solid such as a cone or a cylinder. The playing surface may be in the form of sheet music and a player may move from left to right only; but up as well as down. Thus a musical score may be followed.
Additional embodiments include the whole or part of the surface (whether the outside or the inside of such surface) of a solid such as, for example, a sphere, an ovoid, a cone, a cylinder, a solid of revolution, and a polyhedron. Such embodiments include a terrestrial globe with degrees of latitude and longitude shown on it; a celestial globe; and a lunar globe depicting the geographical features of the moon.
Where the embodiment is a terrestrial globe, the object of a game played on it might be to visit cities and towns throughout the world, with each player selecting the city or town which he or she would visit next by a card chosen at random from a set of cards supplied with, or obtained for use with, the game, the score on reaching that destination being the distance in miles (or alternatively in kilometres; the standard of measurement would be the same throughout a game) between that destination and the city or town last previously visited. Details of all distances would be supplied with the set of cards. Each player would move in turn. When all the cards had been used, either the game would end when a player next reached his or her destination, or the cards not in play would be shuffled and play would continue for another round. Alternatively the game would end on the expiry of a predetermined time. At the end of the game the player with the highest score would be the winner.
Variations on this last mentioned game would include games where the object is to fly between airports; or to sail between ports; or to travel to map references and to say what is located at that map reference. Different sets of cards could be produced for use with the same game. In another variation the embodiment would be a lunar globe, and the object of a game played in it might be to visit different geographical features on the moon.
The abovementioned surfaces may appear on the transparent or translucent material, enabling them to be placed above a grid and replaced when players wish to play a different game or when different age groups wish to play.
Provision could be made for means by which counters or tokens could be temporarily secured in position on or over a playing surface, thereby enabling, for example, the whole of a spherical playing surface to be used. As an example, one means which could be used for this purpose is magnetism.
It might be thought that play may be enhanced by employing one or more icosahedral matrix dice or domino dice as described herein.
Thus according to a further aspect of the present invention there is provided, a playing apparatus consisting of a single polyhedron having on its faces a plurality of symbols, one symbol to each face, the faces being grouped into at least two sets, so as to enable a random score to be generated according to three criteria (such as, for example, distance of movement, and axis of reference) simultaneously on one turn of such playing apparatus.
Preferably, if the playing apparatus is in the form of a dice, the number or symbol which appears on any face thereof with one of two background colours also appears on the opposite face of the dice, but with the other background colour.
In a preferred embodiment each tile or token or card has on its single face one of a plurality of symbols against one of at least two backgrounds. Each tile or token or card is in the form of a domino in that two symbols appear on the face thereof, one symbol (which is against one of at least two backgrounds) being at one end of the tile or token or card, and the other symbols (which is against a different one of the said backgrounds) being at the other end thereof.
According to a still further aspect of the present invention there is provided a playing apparatus consisting of a plurality of tiles or tokens or cards, (not including playing cards) wherein each tile or token or card has on its single face one of a plurality of symbols, the symbols of such playing apparatus being grouped into at least two sets, so as to enable a random score to be generated according to up to three criteria (such as, for example, distance of movement, direction of movement and axis of reference) when such a tile or token or card is selected at random.
According to an additional aspect of the present invention there is provided a playing apparatus consisting of a plurality of tiles or tokens or cards, wherein each tile or token or card is in the form of a domino in that two symbols appear on the face thereof, one symbol (which is against one of at least two backgrounds) being at one end of the tile or token or card, and the other symbol (which is against a different one of the said backgrounds) being at the other end thereof, so as to enable two random scores to be generated according to up to three criteria (such as, for example, distance of movement, direction of movement and axis reference ) when such a tile or token or card is selected at random, save that where the axis of reference is indicated by the background the same background would not appear at both ends of the same tile or token or card.
Preferably, freedom of movement in each direction along each axis is possible, but which may be changed at will in this respect by temporarily removing therefrom certain of the tiles or tokens or cards so as to limit movement along any or several or all of the axes of reference to overall forward movement, or to backward movement only, as may in each case be appropriate.
Such means may be used to distinguish between the spots or marks on the symbols, the symbols, and the backgrounds, as to be (depending upon the particular means and/or embodiment) read either by sight or by touch or by sight and touch.
The playing apparatus may be a random number generator similar to a roulette wheel (whether manually operated or motorised) in which the symbols allocated to the various compartments in which the ball may come to rest and the respective backgrounds of those compartments provide for the simultaneous random selection of three criteria, such as, for example, distance of movement, direction of movement and axis of reference.
In a preferred embodiment of the foregoing a positive number is displayed on a symbol in the shape of a plus sign and a negative number is displayed on a symbol in the shape of a minus sign. A third symbol is provided, which symbol has no effect on the position of play. A fourth symbol is provided, which symbol indicates a variable score. Movement can be selected from at least three axes of reference, thereby enabling movement in three dimensions.
A game may have a playing apparatus whereby a player can select tiles or tokens or cards at random at the commencement of the game and, where appropriate, subsequently in that game, and play each move represented thereon in the order in which he or she thinks best and in such embodiments there may be at least three axes of reference. Thus a game may be played wherein movement in three dimensions is possible. The playing surface of such a game may be the whole or part of the surface (whether the outside or the inside of such surface) of a solid.
In a preferred embodiment of the game the playing surface shows, along each side, the colour of the background which controls movement along that axis. The playing surface may be a square board having on it four separate pairs of axes of reference, that is, one pair for each of up to four players. Each player may start from a different position on the playing surface and each player may have different frames of reference, that is, a positive or forward direction for one player may represent a negative or backward direction for another player. The matrix or the games board or both may be pellucid, so that one can be placed over the other or inserted in the other. There may be interchangeable sets of matrices and boards (or inserts and/or slides and/or other devices). The game may be adapted to be played with a playing apparatus according to any of claims 1 to 22 and 30. The game with the aforementioned features may be adapted to be played with the aforementioned playing apparatus.
Embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of several examples only, and with reference to the figures in which: